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Clear Lake/Houston TX will fit a bill as well. Very nice marinas with pools, WiFi, near all. Occasional hurricane and insufferable heat and humidity are a downside.

There are plenty of cheap boats, it seems like the place absorbs old boats. Most marinas run auctions of abounded boats once or twice a year where you can get older 27-30 footer for a song.

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Well he has the heat and humidity thing dead on. Boat prices are quite cheep down here. The clear lake dumps in to the Galveston bay which then dumps in to the gulf of Mexico all in short order.

The up side..
1) you are 20 min from the 4th largest city in the US.

2) So, high tech .. well your covered there is a fry's the size of three super walmart's just down the street.

3)A cat 4 hurricane hit and most every one was back on line and in business with in the week.
4) internet/power all have mutable carries down here so if you not happy, you have options.

5) Your in Texas, and every one is you new best friend..
6) your boat sleeps in fresh water but can sail in salt in very short order.
7)Maint, supply's, repairs can be made to your dock.. Hell there are even people who will go do your grocery shopping for you and deliver it to the boat.....cheep!
8)Houston has had little effect from the economy, we seem to be insulated from the worst of it.
9) Damn near all docks keep live aboard's separate from weekenders like me.
And power boats tend to stick to together and away from us sail people.

10) there really is no winter here 10 months its hot two months cold " to us" freezing on occasion but it does not stay very long " few days -a week or two". Just to be honest its the days when its 38 degrees and there is still humidity in the air that suck because it cuts right through you.

I would recommend asking a lot more questions about heat and humidity if you are thinking about New York. Unless you insulate your boat, a big job, It can practically rain inside your boat. I have heard stories of water just running down the hull on the inside just from sweating. Can you imagine how unhealthy and uncomfortable that would be.

Yes people do live on boats in the northeast in the winter but:

Docks can be full of Ice, one slip and you are over your head in ice water.

Many docks have ramps, slippery when icy.

If you have a bad winter you have to maintain a bubbler.

Humidity inside the boat.

Heating inside the boat.

Will the Marina have the water turned on. If so how does it get to your boat without freezing. The water is all outside above ground.

What is going to keep your head system from freezing when you are out. IOW any heater left on when you are not on the boat is a significant risk of fire. If you turn it off when you leave you freeze your water systems. If you leave it on you start a fire. If you leave it on and a breaker trips you freeze your water systems.

Yes there are solutions for all of these issues but they are marine systems (read expensive). This is the reason most marina's do not allow liveaboards. It is not easy to live aboard in the north east in the winter safely. A 4,000 Catalina 25 with a couple of Wall-Mart electric heaters probably will not work out.

Please don't take the next statement as insulting. I don't know you or your resources, experience, luck or tolerance for pain . You may have abilities and wisdom not obvious based on your question.

In general the chances are that someone with a $4,000 boat and no experience is very likely to do something fatal if they attempt to live on that boat in the winter in New York. Snow and weeks of near zero temperature changes everything.

Looks like you are looking more seriously a little south so please ignore my rant but you did mention New York.

- I'm looking to buy an older (say 70's to early 80's -but maintained) starter type 25-30' sail like a Catalina (they seem really reasonable these days - I see 'em - especially at this time of year - for anywhere from $2000 to about $10K or so...which is around the amount I want to spend - which leads me into the next bullet):

OK first thing you have to do is actually look at a Catalina 25 and a Catalina 30, as in call a broker and tell him you want to get inside both of these boats.
The 30 is twice the size of the 25 and feels even bigger.
The captain I sail with bought his C30 and paid about 15,000. It is not in very good shape.

I'm with you Jonnie. My wife and I lived aboard an O'day 22 for about two months but that was in the Keys when I was young and skinny.

Whatever you spend on the boat plan on spending at least 30% more in the next year in excess of the items you see you have to fix. The 30% is just for surprises not for sures.

A simpler solution, and what I'll be using in my new marina, which has no WiFi, is the Nokia E71x. It's Nokia's version of the Black Berry with one important exception - it has a wireless router built in. With a Black Berry I'd have to buy a $65/month tethering option, with the Nokia I only have to buy a $15/month data option + a one time $89 fee for a phone upgrade.

What's the monthly - or is this unlocked and depending on your carrier?

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With cell phones why bother?

Depends on the carrier Jim - since I work from my place a reliable landline is helpful - but if I make the leap, I'll need an equally reliable cell carrier - but I'm looking at this separately (cell carriers can be great in some cities - terrible in others - all depends)

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In a boat you're VERY limited for storage space,

An alternative might be a storage bin on shore for things you don't use every day.

Now I know you said you're from Chicago, but I stop spending weekends on my boat when the temperature drops below 50 degrees at night. Boats have no insulation. You can see daylight between hatchboards. One, even two electric space heaters will only keep a boat so warm when it's sitting in 40 degree water and the air temp is in the 20's. And remember, when you crawl out from under that comforter you still have to walk down that cold, windy dock to the showers.

Good points - all - but if I get a decent enough boat - don't they have workable showers?

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If you're going to do this I'd think southern climates, but as someone else mentioned you'll have to deal with humidity.

Yup - I'm open to a lot - again, NY/Northeast was a preference - but not a must...

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Get any boat surveyed before you buy, and be careful of auctions. That bargain boat may not be a bargain after you add up what you needed to make it liveable. To see what I mean check out "Chip Ahoy"

MAN - that Chip Ahoy was a REAL EYE-OPENER... I urge anyone reading this in my same situation to read it asap... thanks much.

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All that said, good luck and welcome! Just curious, what kind of work do you do?

Thanks Jim - and I'm in web-development/internet (long story but that's the gist of it)

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What was your price range again?
There are some 35' boats a 6'2" guy can stand in and I can verify this personally.

Emag - again, I was looking at around 5-6K ...I see a lot of stuff around 25-27' in this range ...I'd like to go 30'+ but it seems once you go over that big 3-0 boats go up in price exponentially... (I'm weight this though ...might put things off perhaps a bit and save more money)

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Well he has the heat and humidity thing dead on. Boat prices are quite cheep down here. The clear lake dumps in to the Galveston bay which then dumps in to the gulf of Mexico all in short order.

All in all not a bad place.

LOL ..Diesel I could hear your Ten-Gallon hat accent in every word of your post!

Actually I've heard pretty good things about Houston (most of which you've mentioned) ...except - the humidity ... but it seems that big H is going to be anywhere the worthwhile places are... i like the idea of getting bargains there ...but I tend to wonder - seems like with the economy the place to find bargains might be in the "rich" areas around the "resort" type places in Florida (Palm Beach, Miami etc.etc.) ...I've heard this also - but who knows...

Just caught both your posts as I was signing of - not insulted at all ... "fatal" is pretty permanent - and I take all comments (especially by long time members) under advisement and with respect. Great info about the Cataline (nope haven't been in either sizes - but I had no idea 5 feet more was TWICE as big ...that's impressive) ... 15K for a 30' seems like something I would consider ...but the whole maintenance issue is full of knowns for me ... (will answer more tomorrow ...)

Don't forget you can buy a boat in any one place on the eastern side of Mexico and without too much trouble move or get it moved to your chosen marina. So, you can plan on/intend to live in Houston (for instance) and still buy your boat from Miami (another example). Just something else to keep in mind.

My husband and I are in the same situation you are. Planning/hoping to move aboard within the next few years. I have REALLY enjoyed reading this whole thread, it was packed with so much wonderful info! I think Houston sounds very much like it holds almost everything we would want. We are thinking more seriously about that destination.

We are also planning on being "snow birds". You say you live in Chicago now. I think the Intercoastal waterway goes up to Chicago from the Gulf of Mexico. I know I have read about folks sailing up there to get away from some of the heat and humidity and also from the hurricanes...all those H's (LOL)! So, you don't have to choose just one place to live, you can have a home base in one location and then move around as you see fit from there. We plan to head north in the spring and not head south again until after hurricane season is over. At that point, we might be heading south to the Bahamas or something.

Those were the only things I could think of to add to the discussion. Best of luck and hope to see you out there!!

Don't forget you can buy a boat in any one place on the eastern side of Mexico and without too much trouble move or get it moved to your chosen marina. So, you can plan on/intend to live in Houston (for instance) and still buy your boat from Miami (another example). Just something else to keep in mind.

My husband and I are in the same situation you are. Planning/hoping to move aboard within the next few years. I have REALLY enjoyed reading this whole thread, it was packed with so much wonderful info! I think Houston sounds very much like it holds almost everything we would want. We are thinking more seriously about that destination.

We are also planning on being "snow birds". You say you live in Chicago now. I think the Intercoastal waterway goes up to Chicago from the Gulf of Mexico. I know I have read about folks sailing up there to get away from some of the heat and humidity and also from the hurricanes...all those H's (LOL)! So, you don't have to choose just one place to live, you can have a home base in one location and then move around as you see fit from there. We plan to head north in the spring and not head south again until after hurricane season is over. At that point, we might be heading south to the Bahamas or something.

Those were the only things I could think of to add to the discussion. Best of luck and hope to see you out there!!

Missy of BrightWolf

I offer myself to go to places for any of you and shoot pics or get information on the Houston /clear lake area. Im in the area and i am down there more than i am home so.. I also need to pay back the the big debt i have to this site for all the help every on here has given to me.

I offer myself to go to places for any of you and shoot pics or get information on the Houston /clear lake area. Im in the area and i am down there more than i am home so.. I also need to pay back the the big debt i have to this site for all the help every on here has given to me.

I would add some points... first, my disclosure. I do not live aboard and with the exception of my in-laws now at my house the thought of living aboard hasn't entered my equation. My points relate life style and work requirements. I would ask what you do computer wise? Do you have lots of uploads (as in gigabytes of files to upload)? Do you require more computer than a laptop? Aircards (and the new WiFi cards from cell companies that allow several computers to connect to the cellular Internet), but ALL of these cards have limits on bandwidth. Those limits are pretty high for normal users but not sufficient for high volume users (I am a photographer and uploads several gigabytes a month). Also, do you have needs beyond simple computer/printer setup? I wonder about the space required for all the items for an office. As to FAX, I use a fax service that you can send and receive via email. It is as quick and very reliable.

And lastly, how much sailing do you anticipate? It seems that the people I know who live/work aboard seem to sail less.

Joe McCary,
Sailing on The Central Chesapeake Bay, West River, MD on my Catalina 27, Aelous II with my wife and friends.
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